'Ken Legge' 1989 ish, 24" wheels, Tange Infinity - edited

Hi all - vintage steel question but this forum is the only one on Mtbr where I have ever seen Don Legge's name mentioned....

Apparently he built bikes in Vancouver in the 80s - 90s?

I saw a small wishbone stay rigid bike at the local Thrift store, nothing to note except that it had Mavic Oxygen M6 rims and the rear stay. It has Don Legge decals.

There is nothing special about it, TIG welds, mid-range Exage 400 components. Kalloy post and QRs, but the hubset QRs are odd. Otherwise I would just think it was Taiwanese production labled Don Legge.

I would get it just to work on for some neighbours kid, but I hate that Exage gruppo and everything would have to go except the frame, front end and rims, so unless it was 'special' there's no point.

I had 2 custom frames built for me in the early 90's. A MTB extra huge with my custom specs, Mag 21 and 1st year XTR for me and a extra small roadbike/ commuter for the girlfriend/now wife. I believe he did some prototype building of the Offroad toad. His main business was road/tri bikes as he was president of cycling BC was the main insigator of the Velodrome up by SFU. Also had a hand in building titanium frames for GT with Lavoie from Whister but I think they were all recalled. The wife still has her bike but gathering dust. I still have my MTB frame it was taken apart when I started riding the shore. I kept the frame although it looked rather funky because of the size but super comfortable to ride. I guess I should put it back to gether one day as all the parts are on other bikes or sitting in boxes in the archives.

Maybe Craig has photo's on his computer, I don't know how to post them.

As to your find if it was a custom originally probably about $900 but Ken did get warranty frames from Norco and some of the other local importers, repair them and resell but I don't know if he decaled as his own or what.

Would that be brother Craig?

Originally Posted by Kirbybikes

I had 2 custom frames built for me in the early 90's. A MTB extra huge with my custom specs, Mag 21 and 1st year XTR for me and a extra small roadbike/ commuter for the girlfriend/now wife. I believe he did some prototype building of the Offroad toad...[balance snipped by DMC]
Kirk

Thanks Kirk - Your note jives with what little was to be found on Googling 'Ken Legge' and bikes - I did find an old Toad thread in which Craig had asked about him - I assume with your bikes in mind....

After noting the name on the frame (the white decals are nothing special either, just lettering 'Ken Legge' and a graphic of a head of a man that looks like the period dressed actor from the Dave Lennox air conditioning commercials or the 19th century woodworker guy on PBS....hehe.) I did a search and this is where I ended up.

Posting images on mtbr - there is a thread around that explains, but short and dirty you can: (1).upload images of any size to a remote host (like Photobucket) and use a URL link to embed them in your thread by hitting the Link icon at the top of the post - it looks like a chain link on a blue circle (globe)? Then you can re-use the pics link for other things or (2) go down the active thread window below where it has the Submit Reply button and there are additonal options including Upload Images - you have to resize your pics down to IIRC 100 Kb using a photo editor/viewer and then browse to the directory on your 'puter and upload to the thread. They just magically appear in the thread, but I rarely use that as they are hard to manipulate around. It might be better to use the mtbr server as if you use the remote service and the account dies then the links are broken..

Back to the Legge - As noted above, there is nothing that shouts ' Custom' about it, and the low to mid end Shimano may reflect that its a youth-size bike, but it is kinda neat to see an actual Canadian bike. Closest I have ever come are a couple of off-shore Rocky Monuntain..

Its also possible that its actually smartly made for a small woman, in that the frame is large for a 24' rim, but the small wheels make the 'over tube height' not bad for shorter folk. That said, its still very mass produced looking and I'd think anything selling as custom would have some nice touches to set it apart a little.

After noting the name on the frame (the white decals are nothing special either, just lettering 'Ken Legge' and a graphic of a head of a man that looks like the period dressed actor from the Dave Lennox air conditioning commercials or the 19th century woodworker guy on PBS....hehe.) I did a search and this is where I ended up.

Ya, those are the decals he used on his bikes. The profile actually looks like Ken.

I picked up a road bike recently that is rumored to have been built by Ken and then sent to Cyclops (Mike Mulholland) for paint. I guess Mike M spent some time living in Vernon, and judging by the fact that the decal reads 'painted by' and not 'built by'.

Does anyone recognize the lug work, or have any way of validating if this may be a true story? Do your frames have any stamps or anything that distinguishes them as Ken's bikes? I love the bike regardless, but its always nice to know the details of where it came from.

Carleton Cycles

When I met Ken in 1978, he was the framebuilder at Carleton Cycles, at 3201 Kingsway in Vancouver, where he put some cable stop braze-ons on my Dave Moulton. I think he was there all through the 1980s.

It was around 1979 or 1980 that Ken built a track pursuit bike for Ron Hayman that was one of the first "funny bikes", with an undersized front wheel, and the top tube running up at an angle to the top of the seatpost.

Ken was also involved in other projects at Carleton Cycles that included designing and building some cutting-edge competition wheelchairs, the trickest feature of which was that they had tubular (sew-up) tires on all four wheels, with the tiny front tires custom-built for them by an old Vancouver cycling friend, Tony Cook.